The present invention relates to an apparatus for starting and fanning a fire, in the form of a hand held device for igniting a charcoal grill or a fireplace or the like. Any other type of heating system could also be started with the present apparatus, for example, an oil heater.
It is known for the above purpose to employ a liquid gas burner combined with an electrical glow wire ignition. Such an apparatus is disclosed in German Utility Model 1,885,990. It is also known to operate a fan by means of batteries, however, without any ignition means as disclosed in German Utility Model 7,144,546.
The two devices of the prior art are thus limited in their usefulness because the one is only capable of igniting the available fuel in a limited area whereas the other device is merely capable of supplying combustion air toward a fuel supply which has already been ignited by other means. Thus, heretofore it was necessary to use two separate devices for achieving a rapid and proper starting of heating sources as enumerated above. First one has to use the ignitor and then the fan. Buying two of these devices is expensive and using them is time consuming.